It all started when Isabel Ruiz, a teacher at Las Veredillas Institute in Torrejón de Ardoz, contacted the Foundation to organize an awareness-raising session on the situation of Syrian refugees for high school students, which took place on April 21.
As a result, showing a high level of commitment and participation, and taking advantage of the proximity of the celebration of the Festival of the Institute, it was decided to organize a solidarity market to raise funds for humanitarian aid projects of the Social Promotion Foundation in the Za’atari refugee camp in the north of Jordan.
It was impressive how the entire educational community become involved, some mothers from the Mothers and fathers of the students Association, teachers and the students themselves. Isabel tells us so:
“The feast day of the Institute, our department carried out a charity market with the purpose of allocating the proceeds to the Syrian refugee camp of Za’atari (Jordan). For this, we organized a sale of non-expendable objects of all kinds (decorations, crafts, stationery, jewelry, CDs, DVDs, etc.) that the students and teachers themselves brought to market. Weeks earlier we had had a talk on awareness rising at the secondary school by the Social Promotion Foundation and then a mobilization of the entire institute based on posters made by the same students to encourage everyone to collaborate.
From the first moment we had the support of the director and the department of extracurricular activities, but above all with the enthusiasm and the valuable help of the mothers from the Mothers and fathers of the students Association. They were those who offered to go through the classes raising awareness to teachers and students, explaining well the activity and encouraging everyone to participate actively.
On the eve of the feast, a group of volunteers students from 3ºESO (14 years old) was decorating and placing the desks that would serve as market stalls. Another group got up early to put the prices and distribute the objects on the tables. The sales were expected to last only an hour but – due to the success – they lasted throughout the morning.
There were teachers and students who also wanted to give money as a donation. Two Arab students came up with a set of henna tattoos to contribute money with each tattoo. Some boys and girls of 1º ESO dedicated time of the weekend to make bracelets and pendants that also sold very well.
At the end of the morning, we had to dismount – not without some sorrow for the good time we had in our flea market. As we were helped by many people we were able to pick everything up in no time. We immediately counted what we had collected. We were very excited to see how well we had done, especially considering that we had organized it with very little time and without any experience. We have been getting photos of the party and many positive comments. Everyone agrees that the first beneficiaries have been us because we have learned to think about others and to value much more everything we have”.
